Video game-esque numbers

What was your favorite baseball video game growing up? Stratomatic (pre Atari)? Earl Weaver Baseball? RBI on Nintendo? The more recent versions of MLB-licensed games for X-Box or Playstation?

For me, it was Baseball Stars on Nintendo, where you could build your own team and rack up sick stats. And that’s what Shawn Tolleson is doing these days in the minors. Tolleson’s prep teammate, Clayton Kershaw takes the mound today against the Reds while another of his teammates, Jordan Walden, is the Angels’ closer. In fact, Kershaw might have been the third-best pitcher on their high school travel team and Tolleson is showing why these days.

After Tommy John surgery shelved him in high school and sent him to college at Baylor rather than the minors, the Dodgers drafted and signed him last year. In his first pro season, he had a 0.63 ERA and 17 saves so he popped up on a lot of radars. But what he’s doing this year is, well, the exact same thing. In 21 games for three different minor league teams, he has an identical 0.63 ERA with 13 saves and has struck out 52 batters in 28.2 innings. That’s a career so far of 47 games, 30 saves, 57.1 IP, 28 hits and 91 strikeouts. Those numbers belong in a video game, not the minor leagues.

This winter, Tolleson and Kershaw were groomsmen in each other’s wedding and Dodgers Magazine had a cool feature on them back in Spring Training. You can download it here: p58-62_Kershaw_Tolleson

Lucky Martin. Lucky Loney?
Read an article about Martin becoming the regular catcher with the Yankees after recovering from his operation. Can’t say that I disagree with the decision not to tender him after his degeneration the last couple of years and the injury, but the Dodgers seem to have a dismal record with handling most of their young prospects, especially if they have to be nursed through any kind of injury. Coincidence?
I don’t think so.
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Then comes Loney. He’s not been injury prone, but nobody seems to be able to straighten out his hitting – nobody with the Dodgers that is. I can easily see him with another team next year, and he’ll come back to be a successful first baseman once he’s from under the cloud of this ownership and management.
How many more “lucky” guys are out there, ready to depart this sorry organization?

I don’t think Honeycutt have nothing to do with these pitchers getting hurt. Heck we was in the top 3 in the NL in pitching in 2008 and 2009 and we was so bad in 2010. Rubby is a starter so 5 to 6 innings shouldn’t be any problem for him.

Good afternoon all.
Here’s hoping Kershaw gets them back on the winning track today.
Here’s a funny one I dug up on Baseball-almanac.com.
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A recent Scottish immigrant attends his first baseball game in his new country and after a base hit he hears the fans roaring run….run! The next batter connects heavily with the ball and the Scotsman stands up and roars with the crowd in his thick accent: “R-r-run ya bahstard, r-run will ya!” A third batter slams a hit and again the Scotsman, obviously pleased with his knowledge of the game, screams “R-r-run ya bahstard, r-r-run will ya!” The next batter held his swing at three and two and as the ump calls a walk the Scotsman stands up yelling “R-r-run ya bahstard, r-r-run!” All the surrounding fans giggle quietly and he sits down confused.

A friendly fan, sensing his embarrassment whisper, “He doesn’t have to run, he’s got four balls.” After this explanation the Scotsman stands up in disbelief and
screams, “Walk with pr-r-ride man! Walk with pr-r-ride!!!!”
. There’s alot of neat stuff on this site. . .

In my view Honeycutt is a ballhanger, as in one who deserves to be hanged by them, regardless of how well the current pitching staff performs. When it comes to Conte, I doubt that he has any, so I can’t quite label him as the same.

Bear, I have to agree with you. Where I think Bunnynutts is particularly lacking is in the development of young pitchers. I think Kersh should be a little further along in his development, and Billz should be WAY further polished as a complete pitcher by now. Young relievers?, forget it. All Bunny did as a pitcher was nibble nibble nibble, and generally, that’s all his staffs do.

Yep!! I’m sure they will be very happy. It sounds awful, but, the more we lose now, the sooner Frank and Ned are gone. Plus, I don’t want Ned doing any buying at the trade deadline. We need to be sellers. Although, we don’t have anything to sell.

Whew!! Wow, what a win. Congrats to Guerra on your 1st big league win. Only the 4th time since the Dodgers moved west in 1958 that the Dodgers have come back from 5 or more down after the 7th inning. Pretty impressive. Especially since Blake, Sands, and Loweeney didn’t do shit!!! Carroll, Miles, Gwynn, and Kemper really mashed today.

“It’s the same process as always. We’ll go after who we think is the best player. Sometimes, we might not like a player as much as somebody else (is projected). We might feel he’s not worth the money. It doesn’t mean it’s a financial restriction. You can expect us to draft as normal. If we’re high on a pick, we will take him. I think we’re going to have a lot of success.”

—Logan White, the Dodgers’ assistant general manager in charge of scouting, on the 2011 draft, which starts Monday.

The sooner Orel, Garvey and that very rich guy get control of the team, the better.

I’ve never thought Ned has done a horrible job. Hind sight makes some of his moves look simply awful, but that is with the benefit of hind sight. Still, any new owner(s) will want their own people and it is probably better to start with a clean slate anyway. If I was Ned, I’d be making contacts,trying to figure out a place to land But… first things first. C’mon, Frank, Do the right thing.

I’ll admit that I prefer watching Sands to seeing Thames or Gibbons or Gwynn in the outfield, but the realization comes that Sands, to say the least, is not ready to be a major leaguer or may always be just a good hitting AAA player. We’ve had Hoffman up who fit that category, and Paul who the management figured fell into that category. I know that we’ll bring back Thames and give Gibbons and Gwynn many more chances, although they’re only marginal major leaguers if that, but I’m ready for Sands to go back to ABQ, and I’d like to see what Oeltjen or Travis can show here in the majors when we need the next outfielder up here. Sands has been given a reasonable opportunity to claim left field, but he doesn’t belong there either, at least not yet.

Damn it! We’re in third place and only 5 1/2 games out. This is ruining everything. Fans will start showing up at Dodger Stadium. Ned will think we should be buyers, not sellers.
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Hurry up, Frank! Sell the Team!

I was so stoked when Dusty walked Loney to get to Bills! Sad but true! I was a huge fan of MLB 04 or 05 for PS2. I would be the GM and make my own good Dodger team and then everynight before bed would play one game as I played the whole season. As a side note when playing the Giants I would simple bean Bonds on the first pitch. No need to pitch to him or waste pitches..

Eric, for anyone that never played is also a great read on the players and their gloves. Live all the names Tori Hunter gives his gloves. Btw, great post in the prior thread.
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Next stop on the train is my stop!

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